Author: mendipgeoarch

Report by Tav

“Tav digging, Mike hauling and Jake on spoil disposal. Work continued on the descending hole opened up last week. 22 buckets of soft, moist fill were removed, still with no sign of a floor. The digging is easy, although clambering out of a 3m deep pit with a fully laden bucket to load the skip is a bit trying. The passage width shows no signs of narrowing and is undercutting the thick mineral deposit blocking the passage in both directions. At this stage it looks more like a previously unseen lower section of the main passage rather than a separate downward development and stands a reasonable chance of passing beneath the obstruction. Not without interest.” 

Report by Tav:

“Jake, Nick, Tav, Matt and Mandy Voysey

A good-sized team headed to the dig face to resume chiselling along the narrowing mineral vein. The exercise was becoming increasingly futile and drilling achieved only a further one and a half buckets of Wookey diamonds before a halt was called to proceedings. With no way on ahead or to the sides the only possible way on could be down so Jake began probing the floor, eventually finding a mud filled hole which began to undercut. By the close of play 20 buckets had been removed and Matt reported dampness at the bottom of the hole. Time will tell and more thought will need to be given to spoil removal and retention as it’s a long way to the top of the slope.”

Report by Tav:

“Nick, Tav & Alex Randall 

While Tav gave Alex a quick guided tour of LoHG, Nick headed to the face to begin chiselling. Alex joined him and with Tav hauling, by close of play 10 more hard won buckets of diamonds and mud had been removed and emptied. The way on remains extremely constricted. A lot of water clearly once passed this way so hopefully this is only a temporary state of affairs.”
  

Vince, Jake, Nick, and Tav

Nick brought along his 36v cordless drill; me, I had a bag full of hand tools. The team assembled and set-off to the cave.

At the dig Nick, Jake and Tav headed along to the current end while I concentrated on widening the slot above the spoil heap. It quickly became clear that my attempts were going to prove fruitless and another, more dramatic, solution might be required, some food for thought. I joined the others.

Progress at the current end of the dig can be described as slow but steady, the constriction is slowly succumbing to the continuous chiselling there are some sediment-filled voids which aid progress; and the air quality remains good. The sediment is loosely packed and claggy, every now and then an air-filled void is encountered. We remain optimistic!

Vince, Tav, Nick, and Jake

Assembled at the allotted time in a rather crowded car park (filming somewhere?) armed with drills of various descriptions and different tasks to undertake. Nick with his Makita 36v headed along to the current end of the dig to continue “diamond” mining with Tav, it’s just a tad constricted. Jake installed a drainage pipe into the lower spoil disposal zone to allow percolation of water coming from the upper-level pool. Me, armed with my Einhell 18v and a set of plugs and feathers, set about trying to widen access to an interesting looking slot above the [upper] spoil heap. It seemed simple enough, a bit awkward to get up to it, but doable. Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan and has to be marked down as a failure. Plugs and feathers were ineffectual in splitting the mineral vein, need to have a rethink. Packed my kit away and went along to see how the others were progressing. The passage is certainly wider on the approach to the dig-face, but the end is still constricted. Some more drill and hammer work to be done yet. Progress looks like it will slow for a while, plenty of time to work on widening the slot above the spoil heap. I will need to purchase some nice shiny tools for the job!

9 buckets of “diamonds” and 5 buckets of ‘mud’, 14 is one-third of 42, the answer to everything!

Report by Tav:

“Three members of the team (Jake, Mike, Tav) arrived on a chilly night to continue ‘Operation Chisel.’ Armed with four freshly charged batteries, battle commenced and taking it in turns by close of play a further six tub-loads of ‘Wookey diamonds’ had been extracted, making a noticeable difference to both the width of the approach passage and the obstinate ‘Durdle Door’ lump in the floor (now minus said door!). 

Although neatly sandwiched between two primes (5 and 7), six is obviously not a prime number in itself. However, being the sum and product of three consecutive positive integers (1,2 and 3), a natural number (cardinal and ordinal), a composite number and the first discrete biprime (the product of the primes 2 and 3), the team felt it met Jon’s minimum mathematical standard and indeed positively trumped it given that six is also a perfect number (a positive integer equal to the sum of its positive divisors excluding itself). In any case it was gone nine and the team were well into overtime.  

With both strategic and mathematical requirements satisfactorily met, the team exited the cave to a frigid ravine echoing to the stentorian shrieks of Strix aluco.”

Report by Tav:

“Wookey Report – 13.01.2022 

Three members (Tav Jake, and Nick)of the team turned up primed for action, which, as luck would have it, proved to be exactly the right number for the evening’s activities, as well as a prime. With access to the dig face currently restricted by a crystalline pinch point and floor lump, a change of tactics was called for and Nick and Tav arrived suitably tooled up, bringing a hammer drill and associated bits and a new heavy duty point chisel respectively. Jake brought his work trousers and polystyrene knee pads. With slow progress anticipated all three headed to the face, each taking a turn with the drill which proved to be very effective. Once the batteries ran out the point chisel was deployed, which was also effective, albeit slower, and by the end of the night, seven, prime tub loads of ‘Wookey diamonds’ had been chiselled out of the offending blockages, which brought a noticeable difference to proceedings. A repeat performance next week should bring even more improvements to access to the ongoing and heavily scalloped rift. Well satisfied with their night’s work the team emerged to a cold crisp night, devoid of owls.” 

Report by Jon:

“On a wet evening, Jake, Tav, Jon and Nick assembled in a busy car park, ready for digging activities. A Wookey Hole event was about to commence. At the cave the four were joined by Duncan, self-certified to be on light duties.

Wookey Hole – 6^th January 2022

Duncan carried out surveying activities while the rest of the Team proceeded to the dig face.

Nick dug, assisted by Tav; Jon hauled; Jake sorted and stacked the spoil.

The digging remains difficult; plenty of gravel was hauled. On the positive side, there were reports of a draught.

Having missed a couple of sessions, Jon was intrigued to find that the Team had moved on from counting in prime numbers, or identifying the prime factors, and were now quoting sums of primes. This evening, Jake kept a bucket tally and reported that 25½ buckets of spoil were removed. That draws a line under mathematical observations…

…except that twice the bucket count is 51. My 51^st year was an interesting one, to say the least…

The Team emerged from the cave under a very wet sky and returned to the car park just in time for rush hour. The owls were sleeping.”

Comment by Tav:

“(17 x 3) / 2 = 25.5. All prime numbers. Well done Jon. I knew you wouldn’t let us down.”